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IM Grows Up: Page 5 of 20

With e/pop, changed settings are rewritten into the client executable, so there is no config file that someone else could modify. You can disable file transfers, chat rooms, client shutdown, and so forth. You can also put in a server password that won't let anyone connect to your server. This is designed to prevent users from getting around the executable restrictions you set.

Of the products we tested, only e/pop uses the ICQ message interface, which resembles an e-mail thread, rather than AIM's chat-room model for sending messages. Some users will despise you; others will kiss your toes. Within that interface, e/pop lets you perform screen sharing, view a user's processes table, remote reboot and remotely specify a command to run, all with the user's permission.

The e/pop system contains a few unique features, including a built-in spell-checker and thesaurus, and you can set a message to expire after a certain number of minutes or at a specified time.

Although e/pop's polling capability is simple, it's enough for the basics. You can create clickable reply buttons in a message and broadcast that message to multiple users, groups or the entire organization. Unfortunately, you can't specify which groups a user may broadcast to.



Interface

click to enlarge

E/pop provides global lists for administrators and personal contact lists for users. The admin can preset users and groups and allow browsing of the Active Directory tree, as well as create profiles that contain lists of users or groups. We could create multiple profiles, but assigning a profile to a user is a manual process that's not tied into directory groupings.